Anti-Heroin Chic
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Music
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • About Our Contributors
  • Masthead
  • Issues
  • About our contributors - 2019
  • About Our Contributors - 2020
  • About Our Contributors - 2021
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

​

12/2/2022

Poetry By Subhaga Crystal Bacon

Picture
        Ron Gilbert CC




To the Doug Fir at Twisp Park


Today, I noticed you for the first time, 
your twin trunks there by the pavilion
shooting up so high, I never look,
follow your puzzle bark, pieces the size 
of a child’s hand, climbing to your canopy
yards and yards away. In your bark, a rusted 
carabiner with braided frayed rope. 

You must’ve seen so much. Cami’s death, 
the shot and the blood; her resolve or lack of hope. 

And that rope. I seem to think a lot about death 
these days. A whole-body settling into whatever 
void awaits, or light, its contrast to that heaviness, 
the dark hole at the center of things. 
 
I walk on, careful on the icy path.
One foot in front of the other, river passing.
You’re behind me now, whatever you know.

​



I came back because there was nowhere else to go.
                             after Anne Sexton


Pouring rain, all the work of men done for a day.
The cabin pings with tin-roof rain,
and a small fire in the stove kills the damp.
I’m inside the nearly naked trunks of trees
their sodden, long dead leaves surrender
like ghosts to waiting earth. I admit,
I sized up right angled boughs perpendicular--
is there not an easier word? – to the ground.
Slim, muscular as the arms of young men,
just a knowing, here’s where you could string
yourself up. Stump nearby. I really 
have no wish to die. It’s like cruising, in a way.
The tree and I wink, side eye each other 
as if to say: I see your appeal, my brother.

​

​
Subhaga Crystal Bacon is a Queer poet living in rural northcentral Washington on unceded Methow land. She is the author of four collections of poetry including Transitory, recipient of the Isabella Gardner Award for Poetry, forthcoming in the fall of 2023 from BOA Editions, and Surrender of Water in Hidden Places, winner of the Red Flag Poetry Chapbook Prize forthcoming in the spring of 2023.

Jean Golden
12/8/2022 02:47:01 pm

I love this evocative poem. Sharing the path with you…

Sara Perry
12/8/2022 03:30:43 pm

Subhaga, I really like these poems. The first one especially resonates with me. It's so good to see your poems published here and there and to see your talent being recognized and appreciated.


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    December 2024
    November 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    March 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.